Scenario: A senior manager requests a short briefing on virtual management software. Among other benefits, software of this type can facilitate organizational communications. Applying a search engine of choice, input “virtual management software” as the search term. Identify two products that specialize in the facilitation of managerial communication. Evaluate each product and the seller’s case for using the software; that is: Are the product’s characteristics and advantages articulated clearly? How would you rate the quality of the presentation? How easy is it to retrieve information from the website?
Generate a short briefing (between 100 and 200 words) contrasting and comparing the software products. Prepare this briefing in a professional paragraph style (no bullet lists or sentence fragments), and include the URLs relative to the products so that the manager (and your mentor) may independently view the sites. Your response must be objective and written in the third person because the briefing’s intent is merely to identify and describe products and presentations; no recommendations are desired. Prior to submitting, ensure that your entry is an analysis and not simply a summary of findings.
Before Submitting Your Assignment
Before submitting any of the written assignments, check the following:
Please note that if an assignment directs you to use research resources, you are expected to demonstrate that you have conducted research beyond your text. (In addition, you are expected to properly cite this research as part of the assignment.) An assignment that is well written but fails to indicate that you have done outside research is incomplete.
Carefully proofread your document and make any revisions to grammar, content, and style. With the exception of correspondence, professional reporting is prepared objectively in the third person to limit any possible author bias. Eliminate any vague pronouns from the composition (i.e., pronouns that lack concrete antecedents). Check tense, since most reports are written in the literary present to provide a sense of timeliness for the reader. Past tense is best saved for historical reporting, and future tense is appropriate when a report’s subject centers on a prediction.
Ensure that any ideas that are not your original work (ideas you have taken from the work of others) are correctly referenced using APA citation format for both in-text and bibliographic entries.
Evaluate the document to affirm that the topic of the submission directly relates to the subject of the course (i.e., managerial communications). An essay must clearly demonstrate competency of a lesson learned by including appropriate theory, concepts, and vocabulary. The object of the report—that is, the scenario, situation, or event—must serve as an example that shows the mentor that a lesson can be applied to the workplace.
Self-check your work by methodically relating the grading rubric to completed work.
